Author Kelly Spence Editors Sarah Eason Kelly Spence Janine Deschenes and Kathy Middleton Editorial director Kathy Middleton Design Paul Myerscough Cover design Paul Myerscough Photo research Rachel Blount Proofreader Wendy Scavuzzo Production coordinator and Prepress technician Tammy McGarr Print coordinator Margaret Amy Salter Consultant John Malam archaeologist Written and produced for Crabtree Publishing Company by Calcium Creative Front Cover BKGD The Great Wall built by China’s first emperor Qin Shihuangdi during the 3rd century BCE Inset A terracotta soldier one of more than 8,000 sculptures that make up the Terracotta Army buried with the first emperor of China Title Page BKGD The curvy roads of the Silk Route an ancient trading route that stretched from China to Europe Inset A Han Dynasty terracotta sculpture of a servant from 206 BCE Photo Credits t Top bl Bottom Left br Bottom Right Alamy ZUMA Press Inc p 16 17 Getty Images DEA G DAGLI ORTI Contributor p 21b Zhang Peng LightRocket p 28b LACMA www lacma org Gift of Mr and Mrs Eric Lidow p 17b p 23t Shutterstock Aphotostory p 22 23 Cl2004lhy p 11t Chen WS p 28 29 Contax66 p 18 19 Pius Lee p 8 9 Giancarlo Liguori p 10 11 Stephen Marques p 5c Rudra Narayan Mitra p 1bg p 24 25 Sihasakprachum p 27b Alexander Vershinin p 6 7 Mo Wu p 4 5 The Walters Art Museum Acquired by Henry Walters 1920 p 19t Museum purchase 1949 p 25b Wikimedia Commons BabelStone p 15t Guillaume Jacquet p 1fg p 13br Wang Jie p 3 p 14 15 Rolfmueller p 12 13 Wit p 26 27 Zhao 1974 p 20 21 Map p 5 by Geoff Ward Artwork p 29 by Venetia Dean Cover Shutterstock Hung Chung Chih br Sean Pavone bg Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Spence Kelly author Ancient China inside out Kelly Spence Ancient worlds inside out Includes index Issued in print and electronic formats ISBN 978-0-7787-2868-9 hardcover ISBN 978-0-7787-2875-7 softcover ISBN 978-1-4271-1845-5 HTML 1 China Social life and customs To 221 B C Juvenile literature 2 China Civilization To 221 B C Juvenile literature 3 China Antiquities Juvenile literature 4 Material culture China Juvenile literature 5 China History To 221 B C Juvenile literature I Title DS741 65 S64 2017 j931 C2016-907255-X C2016-907256-8 Names Spence Kelly author Title Ancient China inside out Kelly Spence Description New York New York Crabtree Publishing Company 2017 Series Ancient worlds inside out Includes index Identifiers LCCN 2017000078 print LCCN 2017004860 ebook ISBN 9780778728689 reinforced library binding alkaline paper ISBN 9780778728757 paperback alkaline paper ISBN 9781427118455 Electronic HTML Subjects LCSH China Civilization To 221 B C Juvenile literature China Civilization 221 B C 960 A D Juvenile literature Classification LCC DS741 65 S69 2017 print LCC DS741 65 ebook DDC 931 dc23 LC record available at https lccn loc gov 2017000078 Crabtree Publishing Company www crabtreebooks com Copyright 2017 CRABTREE PUBLISHING COMPANY All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or be transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of Crabtree Publishing Company In Canada We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities 1-800-387-7650 Published in Canada Crabtree Publishing 616 Welland Ave St Catharines Ontario L2M 5V6 Published in the United States Crabtree Publishing PMB 59051 350 Fifth Avenue 59th Floor New York New York 10118 Published in the United Kingdom Crabtree Publishing Maritime House Basin Road North Hove BN41 1WR Published in Australia Crabtree Publishing 3 Charles Street Coburg North VIC 3058
contents Who Were the Ancient Chinese Digging Up the Past Food and Farming Emperors and Dynasties Everyday Life Reading and Writing Skilled Craftspeople The Three Ways Engineering and Structures Military and Defense Trade and Travel Enduring China Which Way to Go Glossary Learning More Index About the Author 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 31 32 32
Who Were the Ancient Chinese For more than 4,000 years people have called the lands that make up present-day China home One of the world’s oldest civilizations ancient China developed from early settlements along the banks of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River It became a land of innovation and invention Rivers Mountains and Deserts The geography of China helped shape its civilization The mighty Himalaya Mountains rise to the south of China and the Taklamakan Desert and Gobi Desert stretch along its northern and western borders These towering peaks and dry deserts created a natural barrier that isolated the ancient Chinese from their neighbors Winding across China from west to east are the Yangtze River and Yellow River It was along the fertile banks of those two waterways that the first settlements sprung up around 3500 B C E A United Kingdom For hundreds of years China was divided into several small kingdoms Each kingdom was ruled by a dynasty or a line of rulers from a single family The Shang Dynasty 1600 1046 B C E and the Zhou Dynasty 1046 256 B C E were two powerful kingdoms that controlled large parts of ancient China In 221 B C E several small kingdoms were joined together as a single empire under the first emperor Shihuangdi This was called the Qin Dynasty Trade and Innovation The ancient Chinese learned how to create a luxurious fabric from the cocoons of silkworms Called silk this fabric was transported along an extensive trade route that ran west to the Mediterranean Sea linking ancient China to other early civilizations Because of the importance of silk as a trade good the route was known as the Silk Road Other Chinese inventions include paper printing the compass and gunpowder 4
Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan TAKLAMAKAN DESERT Mongolia G OBI DESERT This map shows ancient China during the Han Dynasty 206 B C E 220 C E one of the most powerful and influential groups to rule the land HIMALAYA M OUNTAINS China Anyang Luoyang w Riv e r Xi’an Y ello er e Riv g tz n a Y Myanmar Vietnam Laos Thailand North Korea South Korea East China Sea Key Ancient China during the Han Dynasty Great Wall Present-day borders The Yellow River called the Huang He by the Chinese is 3,395 miles 5,464 km long The waterway is named for its yellow color caused by a yellow dust called loess that blows into it What Is an Ancient Civilization Large settlements of people formed the basis of the first civilizations Through practices such as farming and the development of writing systems government and class systems the settlements of people grew into large cities These ancient civilizations led to the later development of present-day cities states and countries 5
